Definition: Increasing variance in fitness at the expense of lower average fitness to ensure survival across unpredictable conditions.
Examples: Plants producing seeds with staggered germination times.
Life History Adjustments
r-selection: High fecundity with low parental investment (e.g., many offspring).
K-selection: Fewer offspring with higher investment (e.g., longevity, parental care).
Dormancy: Delayed development (e.g., seed banks).
Boosting Genetic Diversity
Role: Buffers populations against fluctuations, ensuring some individuals thrive in any condition.
Mechanisms: Variation of mutation rate, sexual reproduction, dispersal / gene flow.
Phenotypic Plasticity
Definition: Non-parallel reaction norms among individuals with different genotypes in response to different environmental conditions. GxE interaction.
Examples: Seasonal coat color changes in animals; metabolic flexibility in plants.
These Hypotheses can Be Tested
“The fitness of a lineage in a fluctuating environment is the time average of its fitness over the sequence of static conditions it encounters.”1
Different Kinds of Mean
Speaking of statistics
A better definition
Large Language Models
Modeling Language
Outline
About me
Adaptation in stochastic environments
Some of my ML projects
Regression-based Machine Learning (WSU)
Classification-based Machine Learning (UIdaho)
Generative AI-based Machine Learning (EHA)
Closing
Questions
1.
Abreu, C. I., Mathur, S. & Petrov, D. A. Environmental memory alters the fitness effects of adaptive mutations in fluctuating environments. Nat. Ecol. Evol.8, 1760–1775 (2024).